For example, belt-shaped steel stock produced by means of continuous casting facilities are usually fusion-cut to obtain a slab having a prescribed length. In this case, fused slags produced at the time of cutting out a slab are deposited on the undersurface of the slab so that so-called torch dross is formed on such slab.
If a slab on which fused slags are deposited is subjected to hot rolling with the fused slags, there arise intrusive flaws by means of rolling rollers, and lamination flaws on the surface of rolled products and the like, and therefore it is required to remove such fused slags in the transferring process of the slab.
Conventional methods for removing such fused slags as mentioned above are divided broadly into two categories, i.e., a method for blowing off molten slags in accordance with scarfing and a method for cutting slags off by means of cutters. Relating to the latter method, a device for cutting off slags by the use of cutters is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Utility Model Laid-open No. 64139/1979.
The device described in the above Utility Model application is constructed in such a manner that respective cutters are divergently placed on from the front center to the rear opposite sides of a tool rest being vertically movable by means of a fluid pressure cylinder with each required angle with respect to the advancing direction as well as with each required spacing. At the same time these cutters are divergently arranged towards the rear of the tool rest so as to overlap an end portion of each cutter with that of the cutter adjacent thereto, and projection levels of the respective cutters are gradually lowered from the cutter disposed on the central part of the tool rest towards the cutters disposed on divergent opposite sides of the tool rest.
However, the device as set forth above has a disadvantage in that since the respective cutters are arranged as mentioned above, if end portions of a slab to be processed are warped widthwise, fused slags on the warped portions cannot sufficiently be cut out. Besides there is also such a disadvantage in that at the time when a cutter abuts against a slab to be processed, large impact force is applied to the cutter so that life of such cutter is shortened.